Manual washing of motor vehicles and the like, although widely practiced by many owners, suffers certain shortcomings as compared to commercial, drive-through establishments, for example. Among the disadvantages is the difficulty involved in effectively washing and rinsing the undercarriage, and also areas of the roof. Accordingly, it is a rather ordinary practice for automobile owners, who regularly wash their own vehicles, to take these vehicles periodically to commercial washing establishments, in order to have a more complete washing, particularly of parts of the undercarriage. Although a wide variety of attachments and other devices is available to assist in manual washing of vehicles, all of those known to the applicant have significant shortcomings in terms of performance, ease of use, cost, complexity or the like.
In accordance with the present invention, a novel and significantly improved vehicle washing device is provided, which not only greatly facilitates manual vehicle washing operations, but enables the operation to be carried out with a greater effectiveness than heretofore. At the same time, the device of the invention is of a highly simplified nature, capable of economical manufacture, and thus available at a reasonable cost in relation to other, less effective attachments and devices for similar purposes.
In a preferred form of the invention, the spray washing device includes a pistol grip style of handle, itself more or less conventional in form and construction, which is provided with an elongated, forwardly extending spray wand of special configuration, to be described, which terminates in an array of spray nozzles spaced longitudinally along the outer end extremity of the wand. According to the invention, the wand is rotatably mounted within the pistol grip handle for free rotation, advantageously through 360.degree. but in any event not less than about 180.degree.. The wand is provided, adjacent to the pistol grip handle, with a manipulating grip, preferably in the form of a spoked wheel. This enables the wand to be easily gripped by one hand of the user in any rotary position of the wand and provides for an easy, comfortable holding and manipulation of the assembly as a whole, with the user having one hand on the pistol grip handle and the other hand on the wand manipulating wheel.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the wand is provided adjacent its outer extremity with a deep bend, such that the outer extremity of the wand, being that portion containing the spray nozzles, lies at a substantial angle to the rotational axis of the wand in its pistol grip handle. In addition, the general orientation of the individual, longitudinally spaced nozzles on the angularly disposed outer portion of the wand is such as to discharge the individual spray streams generally toward the "inside" of the angle formed by the outer extremity of the wand with adjacent portions of the wand.
In a highly preferred form of the invention, the wand is provided with a double bend, first in one direction, at a location spaced well away from the nozzle portion, and then in an opposite direction adjacent the nozzle portion. The compound bend forms a "dog leg" configuration. With a wand having such a configuration, the operator of the device can easily reach portions of the undercarriage and/or along the roof of the vehicle with a minimum reorientation of the device as a whole and with a rather moderate change in body position, by reason of the compound bend in the spray wand in conjunction with the ability to rotate the wand to any orientation relative to the pistol grip handle.
To advantage, the outer extremity of the wand, containing the longitudinally spaced spray nozzles, is formed in an arcuate contour, to provide some degree of angular dispersion of the individual water jets. Additionally, the preferred form of the invention also includes means, typically incorporated into the pistol grip handle, for introducing an appropriate detergent or other cleaning solution into the water stream when desired.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention and to the accompanying drawings.